Trying to have parts of a court case held in private to keep details out of the press is always a risky tactic since, if it fails, editors consider it a point of principle "to go big" in the subsequent coverage.

That may be something the Prince of Wales is pondering on this morning as he reads how, in the words of the Times, he has been "plunged into a constitutional row" by revelations that have emerged during his attempt to sue the Mail on Sunday for allegedly breaching his confidentiality and copyright.

According to Mark Bolland, a former deputy private secretary at Clarence House, the prince thought of himself "as a dissident" who, despite warnings from his senior advisers and ministers, regarded his role as working against the political consensus of the day, the Times reports.

Mr Bolland said that the prince had ignored advice not to take on a campaigning role. His stance was in sharp contrast to other members of the royal family, who never express views on political matters.

"This aspect of the prince's roles has been created by him and has not, as far as I am aware, been endorsed either by the Queen or by parliament," Mr Bolland's statement reads. The Times gives up most of a double page spread to reproduce parts of the 10-page document.

The Guardian points out that the statement was not heard in court but circulated by Associated Newspapers, which publishes the Mail on Sunday, after the prince's legal advisors abandoned an attempt to preserve its confidentiality. The case was brought after the Mail on Sunday published extracts of the prince's journal, written in 1997, in which he gives candid views of the Chinese government and British ministers.

The Telegraph says the prince corresponds regularly with the PM and other members of the cabinet, setting out his views on issues of the day. "Ministers - including Lord Irvine of Lairg, the former lord chancellor - have protested about being 'bombarded' with letters from the prince," the paper says. "The notes, mostly handwritten, are known to recipients as 'the black spider' memos in which Charles enthusiastically details his beliefs on particular political topics, using lots of underlining and exclamation marks."

The Mail, another Associated title, says Mr Bolland was the prince's deputy private secretary for six years until an acrimonious departure in 2002. Patrick Jephson, a former private secretary for Diana, the Princess of Wales, writes that the wrangle poses not just a question about Prince Charles' views but the way his office operates with the media, with advisers fluctuating between "favourable stories" and threats of litigation.

"It is widely perceived that his office has, for far too long, operated a dangerous system of double standards when it comes to the prince's media profile," he writes.

There is a "flurry of confusing and contradictory reports", as the Guardian puts it, over the apparently imminent arrest of General Ratko Mladic for alleged war crimes. The Telegraph says that the Serbian government was last night negotiating the surrender but denying reports that Mr Mladic was on his way to a US base in Bosnia.

Belgrade newspapers were full of speculation that Mr Mladic would be spirited into Bosnia to avoid accusations that the Serbian government has been helping him escape arrest, the paper says, noting that his possible arrest comes before next week's EU deadline for Serbia to show better co-operation with the international war crimes tribunal in the Hague.

The Independent, which splashes on the story, says Mr Mladic is one of the world's two most wanted war crimes suspects and the army general blamed for the worst massacre on European soil since the second world war. He is accused of orchestrating a bloody campaign of ethnic cleansing culminating in the murder of about 7,000 men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995, the most infamous act of the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

The paper says the European Commission is expected to recommend slowing down EU aid and trade negotiations with the Serbian government because of its lacklustre co-operation with the war crimes tribunal.

A "people's revolt", erupting through the internet, is emerging nationwide against Britain's biggest supermarket, Tesco, the Guardian reports. The paper says that more than 200 anti-supermarket campaigns, stretching from Inverness to Wadebridge, have come together in an online alliance under the slogan of "Every little bit hurts" - a parody of one of Tesco's marketing phrases.

"We're witnessing a national movement," a spokeswoman for Tescopoly tells the paper. "Tesco is a bully using its huge legal might to lodge appeals against planning applications that are turned down by local authorities, and the people are taking a stand against that." The paper says Tesco has 1,252 UK stores and plans to open another 111 in 2005/2006. Its GBP37bn annual sales is equivalent to the GDP of Bulgaria, it adds.

The Sun keeps Wembley's troubles in the spotlight with its front page story that builders at the beleaguered stadium are cashing in at the bookies after betting against the venue being ready for the FA Cup final.

An electrician tells the paper that none of the 60 builders who placed bets wagered the stadium would be completed to hold the match and that a couple of Australian site managers were among the biggest punters. One of the punters scooped GBP1,300 after laying out GBP800 at odds of 13-8, the paper says.

Meanwhile, there is horror at the Mirror over the 12-week jail sentence for a speeding driver, Mohammed Aqueel Hussain, who killed a three-year-old girl in a hit and run collision.

Hussain, who had no licence, sped off in a stolen VW Golf after Levi Bleasdale was struck while crossing a road with her mother, the paper says. Hussain admitted to careless driving and failing to stop, it is reported.

The Telegraph has a detailed analysis of papers, released by the Pentagon, which appear to be al-Qaida employment contracts. They set out salary, paid holiday, home leave and grievance procedures, the paper reports, and the job description is "carrying out jihad". A "mujahed brother" is paid a monthly wage of 1,000 Pakistani rupees (GBP10) is single, 6,500 rupees if married with an additional 500 rupees for every child, the paper says.

The contract is one of thousands of documents seized by US forces, mostly in Afghanistan and Iraq, during the past four years and stored on a Pentagon database known as Harmony.

"One hitherto unknown writer, Abdel-Halim Adl, wrote to a man identified only as 'Mukhtar' in June 2002 complaining of Osama bin Laden's stubbornness and the "capture of a large number of brothers". He said: 'We will become the laughing stock of the world'." The Telegraph complains that all too often little is known about the documents - such as when they were written, who read them and how they were obtained.

The FT devotes most its front page to the news that Eon, Germany's biggest power group, has launched a takeover bid for Spain's Endesa which, if successful, would create the world's largest utility with 50m customers across 30 countries in Europe and the Americas.

The paper says the bid raises prospects of renewed consolidation in Europe's energy sector with analysts envisaging between three and six main European energy utilities. "Many European utilities have bulging war chests after benefiting from high energy prices, with electricity prices having tripled over the past two years," a consultancy, Capgemini, tells the paper.

"HIS-THIERRY!" proclaims the Sun after Arsenal's striker, Thierry Henry, scored the only goal in last night's match against Real Madrid - the first time that an English club had beaten the Spanish "galacticos" in the Bernabeu stadium.

The Times says the Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, hailed the victory as one of his greatest wins in his managerial career. "While others have mocked his obsession with youth, the Frenchman's has never wavered and this was the ultimate vindication, a 47th minute wonder goal from Thierry Henry stunning the Bernabeu into silence," the paper says. (For anyone who hasn't seen it, the Arsenal skipper picked up the ball in the ring near the half-way line, went past four Madrid players and passed the keeper in the bottom right corner of the goal).

"Goodness knows where Wenger had been hiding this performance," writes Richard Williams in the Guardian. "His team, beset by a persistent lack of form in domestic competitions, hobbled by injuries and other reasons for absence, were being written off long before they arrived at the ancestral home of European football's most trophy-laden club. They were to leave as the first English club ever to defeat Real Madrid in the giant stadium on the Paseo del la Castellana, a historic feat whichever way you slice it".

A team of health and safety workers had to be rescued by firefighters yesterday after an office floor collapsed, the Sun reports.

The 21 workers were gathered around a conference table discussing evacuation procedures when the floor gave way and the staff crashed through to the next storey below. One officer broke an ankle and was treated in hospital with three others who suffered bruising. After the rescue in Greater Manchester, more health and safety officers arrived - to investigate the cause of the accident, the Sun says.